Tuesday, 10 July 2018

NPA, LPG operators tussle deepens

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July 10, 2018

Adnan Adams Mohammed

As part of its sensitization exercise to educate the
relevance of the new Liquefied petroleum Gas (LPG) policy initiative which is
expected to be implemented in January 2019, the National Petroleum Authority
(NPA) met with members of the Council of State
last week.

The meeting was to discuss the new policy and implementation
guidelines on the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM).

The delegation, who presented the new policy model to the Council of State, was
led by the Chief Executive Officer of NPA, Hassan Tampuli, who said the main
reason for the policy initiative was to essentially deal with health, safety,
and security issues.

While addressing the Council on the possibility of fear of job loss, Hassan
Tampuli admitted that he was confident their engagement will help shape the
directions of the policy implementation.

However, the Ghana LPG Operators Association (GLiPGOA), has threatened a
lawsuit against the government if it fails to reach a consensus with all
stakeholders on the Cylinder Re-circulation Model.

Nicholas Issaka Agbana, an executive of the association in
an interview has said, “We are doing advocacy. We have sent a petition to the
highest authority. We are seeing what happens; if all that fails, we will go to
court.”

After pulling out of consultative meetings ahead of the implementation of the
Cylinder Re-circulation Policy, the association’s members later went on strike
in May.

Aside from concerns over the loss of jobs, the association has complained that
proper stakeholder consultations were not carried out as the operators were not
engaged on the policy.

As part of the module, gas cylinders will no longer be filled up at gas retail
outlets, but cylinders will be bought from distributors already filled when
they go empty.

On the other hand, with the consumer mind, the NPA said the
policy was to “respond to the question of availability, affordability, and
accessibility across the country.”

Mr. Agbana recounts that, the strike the association members embarked on
recently, took a heavy toll on consumers and was something they would like to
avoid.

“The severe impact we had on consumers, we don’t want to repeat strikes. We
really don’t want to go back to strikes,” he said.

Mr. Agbana has said, the association will take legal action without any
compromise from the government.

“We believe that if the government is open-minded about this, we will come out
with a better alternative than this. We hope we never go on any strike. But
like I said, court action is our next line if there is no consensus on this.”

According to the NPA, existing LPG stations would be classified into low and
high risks based on their deficiency in meeting required safety standards in an
ongoing risk assessment.

Those found to be high risk will be converted into filled cylinder retail and
distribution outlets.

Those found to be low risk would be dedicated to the supply of auto-gas only,
but with improved safety standards.

Meanwhile,
in his address, the Chairman of the Council Nana Otuo Siriboe II commended the
NPA for using the council as their ‘think-tank’ for the execution of their
policy while urging them to ensure that Ghanaians benefit from the
implementation.

“We have no doubt at all that the interaction that we are going to have with
you will be very well informed. I have no doubt at all that whatever we agree
or whatever we tell you will find implementations in your policies and
programs.” He said.